Using Satellites to Stop Forest Fires and Deforestation

Global Park Defense uses satellite-based monitoring against fires, land clearing and deforestation so that ranger teams and patrols can prioritize their work to focus on the highest threats.

Global Conservation funded Global Forest Watch (GFW) in 2017 to deploy in Kibale National Park and Leuser Ecosystem due to their high threats to forests, high biodiversity value, and strong local NGOs on the ground.

GFW is an online forest monitoring and alert platform that empowers people to better manage forests. The system works by uniting satellite technology, open data, and crowd-sourcing and provides timely and reliable information about forests.

In Leuser Ecosystem, local NGOs included HAkA (Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh) and FKL (Leuser Conservation Forum), and in Uganda JGI (the Jane Goodall Institute), which both had the technical expertise and connections to local law enforcement to carry out the most effective training. In addition, these groups had major gaps in technology and data that GFW could fill, making them prime candidates for the GFW deployments.

GFW In Leuser Ecosystem

Global Forest Watch deployed their GLAD-based alert system for the entire Leuser Ecosystem enabling 24/7 monitoring against fires, land clearing and deforestation. With Global Conservation support, GFW trained 40+ FKL Rangers and Aceh Forestry Staff on satellite-based Fire and Deforestation Monitoring is being supplemented by a new Forest Watcher mobile application, which enables Leuser FKL Rangers to use their smartphones to enter locations, reports and photos of deforestation events.

Based on the key challenges revealed through the site security analysis, we decided to emphasize GLAD alerts, satellite imagery made available via GFW, Forest Watcher, and Google Earth Engine.

The Leuser Ecosystem stretches 2.6 million hectares (6.5 million acres)—three times the size of Yellowstone National Park—across the Sumatra, Indonesia. It’s one of the richest tropical rainforests in the world both in carbon and biodiversity—the last place on Earth where critically endangered elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans coexist. It provides food, water and shelter to 4 million people; it’s also under threat.

Since 2001, Leuser has lost 9 percent of its forests, mostly to expansion of agriculture and commercial development. Poor governance and conflicting land use plans at the provincial and central government levels exacerbate the problem.

HAkA now uses GLAD alerts to complement their monthly deforestation data, and uses the satellite imagery available GFW to visually inspect areas of possible deforestation prior to investigating in the field.

GFW is developing big data solutions and tools to help groups like HAkA and FKL cover more ground and be more effective in their efforts. GLAD weekly deforestation alerts and VIIRs daily fire alerts are free and updated automatically, providing more frequent updates and drastically reducing the time required for manual analysis.

In Indonesia, HAkA deployed Forest Watcher with local forest monitors in the Leuser Ecosystem – the last place on earth where orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers are found together in the wild. Previously, these rangers would manually inspect raw satellite imagery and send patrols to the field to collect information using pen and paper.

GFW In Kibale National Park

JGI completed a site security analysis by holding meetings at each protected area’s headquarters. JGI assessed needs related to equipment, staff competence in using mobile devices, and capacity to use forest loss data to guide patrol planning and integrate data into protected area management. JGI decided to focus the training on navigating to and reporting on GLAD weekly deforestation alerts using GPS devices.

Two training sessions were successfully completed on the use of the GFW platform and the Forest Watcher application to assess deforestation using FORMA and GLAD alert systems. 57 staff from the Kibale Conservation Area (KCA), including Law Enforcement, Intelligence, Ecological monitoring, Snare removal rangers and Forest Clerks were in attendance. In addition, 32 Ugandan Wildlife Authority staff participated in a workshop to integrate GFW-based spatial monitoring information and data into KCA management systems.

Photos: Jane Goodall Institute

The people, forests and wildlife of Uganda face severe pressures. Between 1990 and 2010, Uganda lost 37% of its forest cover, or around 1.8 million hectares, while the national population almost doubled. Deforestation is driven by the escalating demand for agricultural land and timber, in an economy that is largely agrarian, but with low agricultural productivity. Data from GFW shows that the 90 000ha area of the upper Kafu River basin, which contains both reserves, lost more than 17 000ha of forest between 2001 and 2013.

The Global Forest Watch platform is helping to strengthen the work of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in protecting chimpanzees and their habitats in Uganda and Africa at large by using the system in combination with mobile technologies to improve forest monitoring. The Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves in western Uganda are home to an estimated 1,157 chimpanzees. However, loss of forest in the vital corridors between these reserves threatens the connectivity and the survival of chimpanzee populations.

The key driver of deforestation is conversion of forest to farmland for subsistence and commercial agriculture by the local communities. Forests are also cut for commercial extraction of timber for export, and to produce charcoal for urban markets and firewood for local use. The discovery of significant reserves of oil and gas in the rift valley around Lake Albert has also increased the human pressures in the region.

In 2017, of the 273 Forest Lost Alerts, 219 (80%) had evidence of true Forest Loss after ground truthing by ranger teams in the park.

GFW Forest Alerts in Kibale Conservation Area in 2017

Cause of Deforestation

Construction Public Facility 19

Construction Residential 3

Farming Crops 147

Farming Livestock 12

Massive Charcoal Burning 2

Illegal Logging 32

Other 4

Total 219 Actual Deforestation

Illegal logging and encroachment in Kibale National Park located with the help of GLAD alerts confirm the location and extent of forest loss from logging and encroachment. Credit: Jane Goodall Institute/World Resources Institute.

Deforestation often happens beyond the view of those with the mandate or power to stop it. While systems like GFW monitor forests remotely, those on the frontlines of deforestation often lack internet connection needed to access and act on this information.

In the case of Kibale National Park, Forest Watcher and GLAD forest loss alerts helped Obed Kareebi successfully detect new deforested areas along the park boundaries. “Thanks to GLAD alerts, the park management were able to prevent further illegal activities and encroachment that could have spread deeper into the national park,” according to Timothy Akugizibwe, the Jane Goodall Institute officer in Uganda training rangers to use Forest Watcher.

By linking remote sensing systems to local forest monitoring efforts, Forest Watcher brings the analytical power of the space age to the palm of every environmental defender’s hand.

Photos: Jane Goodall Institute.

“With Forest Watcher, we can now have intelligence-led patrols in Kibale National Park,” reported Agaba Hillary Kumanya, a senior warden for ecological monitoring with the Uganda Wildlife Authority. “We no longer go randomly to places, but instead know where to look for the latest forest loss.” The app has already proven useful in increasing effective patrols of protected areas, which are vital to protecting the world’s last remaining forests.

The Forest Watcher App enables local monitors and decision-makers not only to access the GFW platform, but to interact with it. The app enables anyone with limited internet connectivity to find GFW alerts in their forests and upload data, photos and observations from monitoring in the field.

The monitoring data is processed by a local forest manager, and stored, managed and visualized using Google cloud and web mapping tools, or exported by JGI and NFA GIS staff for further analysis in Esri’s ArcGIS software.

40 Tablet Computers to document findings in the field (provided in-kind by Google)

By just stopping deforestation and restoring major forests the earth can cost-effectively remove 7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, or as much as eliminating 1.5 billion cars—more than all of the cars in the world today.

The International Paris Agreement’s REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) policy and the inclusion of the land sector in 83 percent of tropical countries’ emissions-reduction plans (known as “nationally determined contributions,” or NDCs) mean these trends could be reversed.

For example, strengthening and expanding Indonesia’s Forest Moratorium could help the country avoid 427 million metric tons of deforestation-related emissions by 2030. If all countries achieve their NDCs for land use change by 2030, the world’s forests could collectively store more greenhouse gases than Russia emits today.